Inhalation therapy is frequently used for patients suffering from such diseases as emphysema, stroke, heart stoppage, drowning, and many other afflictions which a human may suffer which require the administration of either pure oxygen or a high percentage of oxygen or other medicaments administered through inhalation therapy.
One of the problems that is encountered and must be overcome is the necessity of maintaining such medicaments sterile during the administration process. Since the most common inhalation therapy given is the administration of oxygen, either in its pure state or diluted with air, the following description will progress in connection with a humidifier which humidifies pure oxygen as it is taken from an oxygen bottle or other source; and in connection with other types of medicaments, including oxygen, will describe a nebulizer which permits the physician to control the percentage and humidity of oxygen being administered. In each case, the humidifier or nebulizer is designed and constructed so that it may be easily sterilized, packaged in a sterile package which is opened only upon use and applied to a sterile container, thus ensuring the sterility of medicaments being administered to the patient.
Accordingly, it is one of the objects of the present invention to provide a humidifier device which may be applied to the standard screw-threaded sterile irrigating container normally found in most hospitals and which functions to support the container during use.
Another object of the invention is to provide a humidifier structure incorporating an alarm device for alerting hospital personnel of a malfunction in the humidifier.
Conventional humidifiers as found in hospitals and other patient care centers are either of the disposable or non-disposable types. The non-disposable humidifiers require constant cleaning, which is not always done or not done effectively by hospital personnel. The disposable humidifiers are, variously, non-sterile and may or may not be contaminated; prefilled sterile humidifiers which are costly; and humidifiers that adapt to intravenous solution bottles but which do not have a separate support for the bottle when used as a humidifier. Accordingly, it is another object of the invention to provide a humidifier/nebulizer device which obviates the disadvantages of conventional humidifier/nebulizers because it permits hospital personnel to utilize a standard irrigating container as a humidifier or nebulizer, thus insuring the sterility of the oxygen or air being administered to the patient.
Another object of the invention is the provision of a humidifier/nebulizer device equipped with a standard screw cap fitting that may be screwed onto the standard stock irrigating container usually found in large numbers in any hospital, thus forming a support for such bottle as well as insuring the sterility of the contents thereof.
When used as a nebulizer, the device provides a mist-forming jet when the device is connected to a source of oxygen, and also provides for adjustment of the quantity of oxygen being administered to the patient. Another object of the invention is the provision of a nebulizer structure incorporating a baffle which increases the therapeutic affect of the medicament being administered by refining the mist particles administered to the patient.
The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will be apparent from the following description and the drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the embodiments illustrated and described, since the invention may be embodied in various forms within the scope of the appended claims.